7 biggest US presidential victories since 1945

The current US political scene is deeply polarised, but there have been times when US presidents won commanding election victories.

In 2016, Donald Trump won the presidential election, but lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton.

Here’s a list of the top seven presidential votes in terms of the size of the electoral college win.

7. George H. W. Bush (1988)

Even though Bush senior was a one-term-president, at his victorious election he did extremely well. The Republican scooped up 426/538 electoral college votes - an impressive 79% of those available. The former vice president went on to lose to Bill Clinton four years later.

6. Dwight Eisenhower (1952)

This Republican president won 442/531 available votes (83%). He only lost nine available states including both North and South Carolina.

5. Dwight Eisenhower (1956)

Four years after his first victory, the Republican president was re-elected with 457 electoral college votes, 86% of those available at the time. His electoral college vote share went up, as did his popular vote. He also defeated the same Democratic candidate for the second time.

Johnston took over as president when Kennedy was assassinated, and went on to win a decisive victory in 1964. He won 90% of the electoral college votes – 486 out of the 538 available. Four years later, the Democrats were ousted from the White House when Richard Nixon won the presidency.

Incumbent President Jimmy Carter became a one-term-president in this striking election. Ronald Reagan beat Carter with an impressive 91% of electoral college votes (489/538). Reagan was six states short of winning every state.

2. Richard Nixon (1972)

Four years after his first win, Nixon took on Democrat George McGovern. Nixon won the most decisive of victories, picking up every state bar Massachusetts taking his total to 520 electoral college votes (97% of available votes as well as 61% of the popular vote). He also failed to win DC.

Already taking another spot on the list, this Republican giant takes the crown for the most electoral college votes won in a presidential election since the end of World War Two. Like Nixon he was one state (and DC) short of turning the entire US red. He won a staggering 525 electoral college votes – 98% of those available. His only downfall, other than the District, was in Minnesota which he almost won.

The top seven on the list are based on the share of the electoral college vote won. Figures from the list are based-off statistics on Wikipedia which can be found here.

Richard Wood

Richard Wood is a Masters student in Political Research at the University of Aberdeen and is Head of Media for campaign-group TalkPolitics. Other than politics, he is passionate about travel, running, and writing, as well as all things space-related.